The Day Waffles Spoke

by Pavithra Nair

     I woke up from sleep rubbing my eye and found myself on the floor. I only had one eye because I lost my other in an accident. I perceived that my owner had kicked me down. She wouldn’t do it on purpose as   she loves and cares for me a lot. She shares everything with me, all her tears and happiness. If anything bad happened to her, she would immediately run to me and cry on my shoulder. She has that little devil’s laugh which very adorable. She basically brightens up my day! 

The little chatter box talks to me all day, not even giving me a little gap to breathe and understand what she is trying to say. It’s both cute and annoying at the same time, and I desperately want to respond to her because in our world I am exactly like her, a blabber mouthed and playful teddy. If I were a human we would make a really great friendship that would last for long.

To be honest, I can talk and have feelings too, but in every doll’s life  it has only one chance to talk to their owner, but no one knows how long it will last. May be you could only speak a word or you will only get a minute and I have been yearning for that very day to come. But in that very minute I should let her know how much I love and care for her.

Thinking of all these, I looked at her, who was rolling like a pig in mud as she couldn’t find me on the bed. I slowly got up and laid on the bed, and as soon as she felt my presence, she squished me like a marshmallow. I felt suffocated and started breathing heavily and began to coughing. At that very moment, she got up and sat on the bed and looked around and then at me. She saw me coughing and was dumb struck! She was knocked out of her socks! I realized what I just did and gave her a nervous smile.

‘Waffles, did you just cough and smile at me?’ She shouted.

I was also surprised at her reaction and asked her, ‘Kid, did you hear me? Did you? Did you?’

She just stood there with her mouth open as wide as a cave and with eyes which would pop out any second. She then pinched herself to check whether she was dreaming, but she wasn’t.

‘Waffles, you can talk?’

I nodded and recognized that my time was here. I jumped in excitement and started running around the room. I shook her but she still had the same surprised look.

“Look kid, what you are seeing now is absolutely real. I know it’s shocking and unbelievable but we have no time to waste. Now let’s go, have some fun!’ saying this, I pulled her so that we could go to the park.

She came along and on the way she asked me a lot of questions like why I hadn’t talked to her all these years and where I had been till then. I explained her everything and she just nodded. We were playing in park but I noticed that she wasn’t as joyful as she was initially. I approached her and asked her what had happened. She looked at me with teary eyes and then said she didn’t have much time left.

 'So you will leave me any second? Can’t you stay forever with me like this and I would the happiest kid in the whole world.'

I let out a sigh and replied, ‘Look kid, don’t worry, I will always be by our side even if I don’t talk to you. I will always be here to listen to your stories, you will always have my chest to sleep on and I promise we will laugh, cry and experience everything together. I have waited for this moment to come for a very long time, just to thank you for cosseting me all your life , just to tell you that if you don’t have anybody and if I won’t be able to talk to you also, I will be here for you. I just wanted to tell you that I love and care about you as much as you care about me, and without you my life would be worthless’.

She hugged me and now we both were crying. Finally, I gave a small peck on her cheeks and I froze. She called me many times, I replied but she couldn’t hear me. I knew my time was over. She rested her head on my shoulder and said,’ I am really lucky to have someone like you beside me, I love and will love you forever!

I gave a little smile and said ‘I love you too, kid’.

🔆

(Pavithra Nair is a grade 8 student in Indian School, Al Ghubra, Muscat. She is a fine Bharatnatyam/Mohiniyattom/Kuchipudi dancer, and a huge fan of K-pop band, BTS.) 

My Idol - Rafael Nadal

by  Arjun Murali

Twenty-Time Grand Slam Winner, Roger Federer said, “Rafa really can hurt anybody on any surface. He’s that good. He’s not just a clay-court specialist.”

This perfectly sums up Rafael Nadal as a tennis player and why he is considered a legend in the sport. His dedication, the never-give up attitude and his humility is what makes him stand apart amongst other athletes.

Rafa was born in Manacor, a town in the island of Mallorca in Spain to parents Ana Maria Parera and Sebastian Nadal. From a young age, he developed an affinity towards sports, particularly Tennis and Football. His uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal, was a retired professional football player who played for teams like RCD Mallorca and FC Barcelona. Recognizing in Rafa a natural talent, another uncle, Toni Nadal, a tennis coach, introduced him to the game. Though born as a right- handed, his uncle Toni encouraged him to play left-handed for a natural advantage on the court.

On 5^th June 2005, Rafael Nadal won his first Grand Slam, The French Open by defeating Argentinian player Mariano Puerta in the finals. As of 2020, Rafael Nadal has won 19 Grand Slams, 35 ATP 1000 Masters and 21 ATP 500 Masters along with an Olympic Gold Medal in Singles in the 2008 Olympics held in Beijing. He has inspired and motivated people around the world as a tennis player but more importantly as a Human Being.

People, however, often overlook the struggles he has had to go through.  The Rafael Nadal whom we see today has achieved all of this through rigorous hard work and immense determination.

Though he has achieved monumental success in the sport of Tennis, injuries threatened to have a great impact on his career. He has suffered multiple injuries throughout his career, coercing him to withdraw from various prestigious tournaments and competitions. He has had to face constant criticism throughout his life with people always on the speculation that his career would come to an end and he would have to retire. However, despite all the setbacks, Rafa has managed to successfully overcome all the hurdles in front of him. His determination and fighting spirit is what really inspires me and my only hope is that I could imbibe these qualities within me. 

Rafa’s fighting attitude is something which is praised by almost everyone. He plays every point as if his life depends upon it. Till the ball doesn’t bounce of the court twice, you can be sure that Rafa would try everything in his power to successfully return the ball to the other side of the court. Even after an excruciating game, he won’t rest till he has completed his training. Even during training sessions, he plays every point with the same intensity and complete awareness. This encourages me to remain focused on a particular task and finish it, before taking on a new responsibility.

He has great admiration for his fellow athletes. In his words he describes Roger Federer as someone who was born to play the game. Rafa has great respect for him and describes Roger as a ‘complete player.’ Describing Novak Djokovic, he points out Novak’s insane mental toughness and his unparalled talent on the court.

One of his quotes has had a great, deep impact on me as a person which describes the challenges in life and how we should face it. In his words,” Enduring means accepting. Accepting things as they are and not as you would wish them to be, and then looking ahead, not behind.”

🔆

(Arjun Murali is a grade 10 student in Nalanda Public School, Mumbai. He loves to play football, watch tennis, listen to music and reading.) 

Veronica

by Hridhimaa Dasgupta

Clouds started gathering up. It looked like it was going to rain.

It was math class; Veronica couldn’t help but get distracted by the raindrops racing each other on the window.

” Veronica!”

She gasped as she snapped out of her imagination. Miss Judy looked as furious as the clouds outside.

Getting shouted at completely ruined her mood. Her two friends came to her table with their lunch boxes, but she just walked away.

“I know it’s her usual thing to do, but it hurts every time,”said Yuna looking towards veronica.

“Yea, but with this attitude she’ll only have us as her friends,” said Cherry. They both sighed.

 Veronica was stomping her way to the cafeteria, still holding a grudge on Miss Judy. 

“Hi.” a girl popped up in front of her. She got flustered.

“Hi, I’m Lia,” the girl said with a smile.

Veronica felt that she looked very similar to her mom. Her mom had passed away three years ago. Since then she has been a little different… maybe a lot different.

 “Hi, I’m Veronica,” she said in an annoyed tone.

“Are you going towards the cafeteria too? Let's go together.”

 “OK,” I murmured.

 On the way to the cafeteria there she spotted Jim.  Rolling her eyes, she walked away.

“Oo, what’s with that face miss depressed?” said Jim from behind.

 Before Veronica could say anything, Lia grabbed her hand and said, “Forget about him. He will go if you ignore him.”

Veronica clenched her fists and walked away.

They sat down away from the other kids in the cafeteria.

Lia asked, “Why don’t you go sit with them?” 

“They probably don’t want a bunch of losers like us.”

“Well, how do you know they think of us like that? They may just be a little afraid of being friends with us because we aren't so welcoming,” said Lia.

“Oh, please,” Veronica pleaded.

“I think you should approach them. Just be kind.”

After some thinking, Veronica agreed.

Lunch was over and Veronica was on her way back to class.

“Hey” Lia popped “How was it? Did you make any friends?”

“Yes, It did turned out they were pretty cool and kind. Johnny was quite funny.”

“See?” said Lia, “if you just keep a calm mind, be kind and approach other people, I bet no one will bully you”.

It was the next day at school.  

“Hey,” Lia popped up again from nowhere.

 “Today you are going to face your fears,” she said

Veronica was confused.

Right then she saw Jim approaching towards her. 

 “Was sup kiddo, let me guess… you’re going to walk away again.” He laughed.

Veronica looked at Lia, a little scared.

Lia whispered, “Keep calm. Say what's on your mind; don’t hide your feelings, let it all out and confront him and all the bad things he has done to you and make him realize his mistake”.

Veronica took a deep breath and confronted Jim. She said what a rude bully he was and how he was hurting other people. 

Jim replied, “Woah! I’m sorry. I thought you would take it as a joke.”

She replied with a little anger that it was not a joke to hurt other people and walked away.

 “Well done,” said Lia. “Now you won’t have to worry about him anymore. But what about you?”

 “What do you mean?”

“You know you have been rude before to most people. Don’t you feel bad about that?”

She sighed and went in her classroom and called for everyone’s attention.

 “Hey guys, I know, since the first day of this year I have been rude to everyone and I would like to apologise for my actions.”

She said sorry for everything she had felt guilty for.

“Wow, it feels like a huge burden got off my chest,” she said.

“Is there anyone else you want to personally apologize?” asked Lia.

Veronica smiled and nodded, and walked toward Yuna and Cherry.

She confessed on how rude she was to them and thanked them for being with her despite her behaviour.

“Oh My God! It feels so nice to see this side of you,” said Yuna.

 “I hope you stay like this forever,” said Cherry and they hugged it all out.

 It was lunchtime. Veronica looked around for Lia, but couldn’t find her. So she sat sitting alone.

“Mind if we sit here?” asked the group of friends she met the previous day.

Suddenly Lia popped up from far behind and said, “Just be yourself, try to open up, control your anger and listen to others and be friendly”. 

Days went by but there was no sign of Lia.

Veronica searched for her everywhere and she eventually gave up.

“I wish I could at least thank her for what she has done for me,” she thought thinking of Lia fondly.

🔆

(Hridhimaa Dasgupta is a grade 8 student in GEMS Modern Academy, Dubai. She loves to paint, play the guitar and shake a leg with K-pop.)

Lonely

by Smriti Sriram

lonely,

we have companions

close yet so far,

 

these sleepless nights,

Pondering upon the meaning

of life and death

 

lonely,

being lonely

is suffocating

you feel depressed

but being physically alone

is not the same thing

 

lonely,

the feel like to runaway

the feel to stay in your bubble

such things bring pleasure to our lonely souls

But at the break of dawn

it is all lonely again

🔆

(Smriti Sriram is a grade 11 student in St Mary's catholic High School, Fujairah, UAE. She has a keen interest in learning languages, writing and making artwork.) 

The Battle of Magical Creatures

by Aniketh Arun

   Have you ever heard of a centaur, a minotaur or maybe a fawn? A centaur is a half man and half horse. A minotaur is half man and half bull. A Fawn is a half man and half goat.  A long time ago there were two centaurs named Steve and Jim. They were the best of friends. They would do everything together. One day, they saw some new creatures that moved into their forest. It was a fawn named Dan and a minotaur named Luis with their children Bob, Rick, and Dylan. 

Steve and Jim did not like this new family because they completely took over the forest by planting olive trees everywhere. Their children were even worse. They cut down trees with their horns and completely ruined the forest. 

   The centaurs  could not deal with this nonsense any longer. After trying for three years to stop destroying their forest, one stormy night, in the middle of winter, they decided to execute an attack they had been planning for over a year.  They grabbed their bows and axes and prepared for battle. That night while the minofawns were asleep, they quietly crept into their house and stole the minofawns. They went to the highest peak that they could  find and chucked Bob, Rick, and Dylan off a cliff as revenge for destroying the forest. Just to make sure they were dead, they shot them with arrows. They spent the rest of the night cutting down all of the olive trees that the minofawns had planted.

They had also got all their friends and attacked the minotaur’s father and his kingdom. The centaurs had completely destroyed everything the Minotaur had loved.  At dawn, the centaur had positioned themselves behind trees. When the Minotaur and the Fawn woke up they realized the babies were gones. The minute they walked out, the centaurs shot arrows. They hit the fawn but missed the Minotaur. The Minotaur then ran them over with his horns. He then rushed back to his dad Minos’s kingdom to get his wife healed. On his way there he noticed that all the olive trees were cut down. This made him angrier. When he got to his hometown, he saw bodies of Minofawns lying on the floor dead. When he reached his dad’s kingdom he found the entire city in ruins with everybody dead. This made him want to kill those centaurs. This was the start of the Battle of Magical Creatures.

The centaurs knew that a battle was going to take place. So they prepared their bows and swords. They wanted to attack when the minotaur was least expecting it.  The centaurs knew that they would win because they had the power of Aslan on their side. Aslan the lion is their god. The time came for the battle and they all were ready.

The centaures were very confident they would win. First of all, they outnumbered the minotaur. They thought they would crush him. But, the battle was a lot harder than they thought. Arrows were flying everywhere! What was even more surprising is that the minotaur had help from his dead wife's family. 

Now the Centaurs were outnumbered. Word got out that there was a battle happening in the forest. Everyone wanted the centaurs to win because they knew the centaurs had been living here for over 500 centuries. The centaurs who weren’t expecting the minotaur to find help, retreated back to their family. The minotaur followed and walked straight into a trap. The minute they reached there, they were surrounded by centaurs. The battle lasted about 3 days.  The minotaur was out numbered. He lost everything. The minotaur put his weapons down and surrendered. He knew that he could not win this battle. 

The terms of surrender were that the minotaur would never come into this forest again. If he did he would be killed. The minotaur agreed to the terms of surrender and left the forest. He got married and had kids. The minotaur was happy with this new life. With the centaurs and minotaur living happily, they all lived happily ever after.

🔆

(Aniketh Arun is a grade 6 student in Adams Middle School, Redondo Beach, California. Aniketh loves biking, soccer and coding. He plays the piano and the keyboard.)

The Fleeing Shadow

by Mythili Tarakad Seshu

It is always behind me,
I stop moving.
As I wait for a sign,
That I’m not dreaming.

I make a point,
Of staying away.
Before the darkness
Consumes me.

Whispers follow me,
I’m forever haunted.
Glances speak more,
Than words ever could.

I block out the sounds,
And focus on my path.
I can’t help but wonder,
Am I far enough?

I have had it by now,
It’s time to face it head on.
I turn around,
Waiting for the ultimate showdown.

A figure steps out of the shadows,
Fully cloaked in black.
It takes its mask off,
And I find my face staring back.

I recoil in horror with the realization.
My body stiffens, my eyes narrow.
My purpose has finally come to light,
As I watch the figure’s fleeing shadow.

🔆

(Mythili Tharakad Seshu is a grade 10 student in GEMS Our Own English High School, Dubai. Her hobbies include reading and singing.)

Procrastination 

by Advika Vaidhyanathan

Tomorrow I will start my work

Tomorrow I will exercise

Tomorrow I will read a book

Tomorrow I will prioritise. 

 

Yesterday I had a headache

Yesterday I needed a break

Yesterday to start it was too late

Yesterday I had too much on my plate. 

 

Tomorrow will never come

Tomorrow has to be today

Tomorrow is always bothersome

Tomorrow seems so far away.

 

Yesterday always flies past

Today never seems to last

Tomorrow is carefully planned out

But we're always in the mood to flout.

 

Today should be the day we learn

Today the day advice we borrow 

Today the day we become concerned

Today the day, there is no tomorrow. 

🔆

(Advika Vaidhyanathan is a grade 12 student in Gems Modern Academy, Dubai. She is an avid reader, singer and also plays on the piano. She enjoys writing poems and stories in her free time.)

 

 

Charlotte's Dream Comes True

by Lakshmisree Raju 

'Perfect!' the doll maker said. 'The rarest and most exclusive doll I have ever made.' 

That was me, when I was born! My master, who made me, always called me exclusive. That was a very nice feeling. It made me feel proud of myself. But it was not so long before I was bought. A small girl was in love with me - I know I am so beautiful - and compelled her mother to get it for her.

 I wonder if my master even remembers me now or was the word 'exclusive' just for the purpose of selling. Most probably, yes. But it doesn’t matter because I got an even better family now. Abby take really good care of me. Her family treats me just like a real person. I’m sure that there is no other family like the one I am living with now.

But as time slowly passed by, I was sitting at the very back of her toy cupboard. That was where her unused toys were stored. It meant that she didn’t like me anymore! 

 One or two months later, Abby was clearing her toys. As she was going through her toys, my hands were shivering and my heart was racing with fear. I didn’t want to go away from her! But guess what happened, she threw me in the trash can just because I was a little torn. That’s not fair! She should have at least donated me to poor children, but she didn’t. She threw me right into the trash can. Then, a few days later, I was transferred to the big common dustbin.

'Eww! It stinks in here,' I thought.  It was one of the smelliest places I have ever stayed in. I never knew dustbins smell this bad. After a few weeks, I got used to the smell. I was feeling very lonely. 

I was staying there for years and years. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t move. If I could, I would have run away years ago.

One of my all time wishes was to become alive and be a human. I have always wondered how it would be to become a human. I’ve always wanted to explore life myself and get to know more things and people. I’ve always wanted to see how it is to express emotions rather than keeping it all to myself. You know that dolls like me can’t react, but humans think that we also don’t have thoughts and feeling. Too bad we can’t show them. 

As soon as I was thinking about it, a girl came. She looked at me and then she picked me up. 'Yes! I finally have someone to live with.' I was filled with ecstasy. But she threw me down and my excitement also went down the slide.

I went back to being lonely and sad again. I was surprised how I hadn’t got any friends till now even though I had been here for over two years. 

A few days passed and a couple came near the dustbin. They looked at me as if they had never seen something like me before. They picked me up. That was the best time of my life. They took me to their home and gave me food. But of course I couldn’t eat it before because I used to be a doll. But not anymore.

The couple who took me to their home wanted me because they wanted a girl child for so long but their wish hadn’t come true. They were treating me as their daughter. One day I was laying in their bed and I over heard them.

'Do you know that we can have a girl child,' the old man said.

 'What? How?” She exclaimed with a big smile on her face. 

'I found a magic word that can turn any doll into an human,' said the man with great excitement. 

'Wow ! OK, then what are we waiting for? Lets do it now!'

Hearing this I was pumped up, ready to become a human. As they said the magical words, my emotions were all mixed up, I didn’t know what to do. I was overjoyed.

And… puff! I became a human. Both my parents gave me a big hug and I screamed, 'Hurray!'

Good things never happen sudden, but the wait is worth it.

🔆

(Lakshmisree Raju is a grade 8 student in Indian School, Al Ghubra. She is trained in Carnatic music, which is her first love. She loves crafting and bakes cakes whenever there is an occasion.)

Dreams

by Preetish Jaria

A narrow stream in our mind of wild imagination  

With no application or valid faction 

It is something that you desperately need  

But can be also what you urgently seek 

It has nothing do with your feelings or emotion 

Its just your passion

'Come on, you can do it,' says the will power

But give people the real answer they want,

After all someone has said 

'Dreams is not what you get in sleep

 It is something that does not let you sleep.'